USGS Science in California

Check out this video from USGS Natural Hazards partner IRIS, available in English and Spanish, describing ShakeAlert, an earthquake early-warning system. #ShakeAlert can give communities precious seconds to take protective actions when damaging shaking associated with an earthquake occurs. What the video to learn how it works. http://ow.ly/GLcR50CAKux http://ow.ly/SfPQ50CAKuy (Spanish version)

This adorable Sierra Marten was caught on wildlife camera last year. The camera was set up to study animal movement under a new road crossing structure in Sierra National Forest. The USGS and USFS research team working on the project affectionately call this elevated road segment in Sierra National Forest a toad road because it was intended as a potential way for threatened Yosemite toads to pass under roads and avoid vehicle collisions. But the cameras are showing that it...’s not just toads that are using this space! The team has been documenting all of the species using the elevated road segment as part of their research. In addition to Yosemite toads, skunk, weasel, rubber boa, gartersnake, and a variety of lizards and rodents have been spotted using the underpass. Learn more about the project here: http://ow.ly/M5Iu50CB55g U.S. Forest Service - Sierra National Forest

Looking for something to do with your family today? Print out a few of our California ecology coloring sheets. We’ve got geese and otters and frogs and more. Take a photo of your masterpiece and share it in the comments! http://ow.ly/IHWP50Cv5f0

Happy Thanksgiving from USGS in California! We are thankful for forests, rivers, wetlands, and deserts; for rocks, soils, mountains, and minerals; for giant sequoias, Joshua trees, manzanitas, and island oaks; for desert tortoises, sea otters, southwestern willow flycatchers, and giant gartersnakes; for DNA, streamgages, GIS, and solar-powered GPS transmitters; for data, math, statistics, and programming; for ShakeAlert, hazards mapping, mercury monitoring, and science that ...helps people and ecosystems thrive in an ever-changing world; for the first rain of the season, fresh green leaves sprouting after fire, fog drip on a lichen, and the sound of a flowing stream; and for all of our scientists, staff, volunteers, collaborators, and supporters of science everywhere. What are you thankful for today? Images: sea otter showing its grizzled fur (like going grey in humans!); lace lichen growing on an island oak in the Channel Islands; hydrologic tech measuring stream discharge at Indian Creek near Happy Camp, CA; view of the Channel Islands from above during an aerial survey for seabirds and marine mammals.

How do irrigated greenbelts compare with thinning fuels as strategies for reducing wildfire hazard around houses? Our scientists and collaborators investigated this question using three home landscaping projects in Southern California. They compared moisture levels between lightly irrigated native shrub greenbelts, recently thinned native shrublands, and untreated shrublands, finding that the summer live fuel moisture was typically higher in lightly irrigated shrubs than... in nearby unirrigated shrubs of the same species. Then, the scientists used the fuel moisture data to simulate fire spread with fire behavior models. The models predicted that the greenbelts could have lower rates of fire spread than either untreated or thinned shrublands. The study provides some of the first experimental evidence that irrigated greenbelts may provide some level of fire protection. The results were published in the open-access Bulletin of the Southern Academy of Sciences. Read the publication here: http://ow.ly/ZPwQ50CsR2a Images: Example of an increasingly common type of fuel clearance around homes near Ramona in San Diego County; example of summer lightly irrigated native vegetation.